At Peter Moyes Anglican Community School, we promote good mental health through positive behaviours and each term we acknowledge a mental health and wellbeing day to support this message. This term our focus was RU OK? Day. Students 7-12 participated in our fourth annual picnic together on the Oval. Students wore their sports uniform, sat around picnic rugs and enjoyed picnic lunches with their friends on what was a lovely, sunny day.
Leading up to the day this year, students participated in a number of House Tutorial Group activities promoting some of the skills and messages of RU OK? Day. This year there was a particular focus on what to do after you ask the question ‘RU OK?’. It is also important to realise that it is okay, to sometimes not be okay. We spoke to students about how to manage these moments and the help seeking behaviour they should engage in for support; through contacting their School Counsellors, Chaplains, or the various helplines that are available to them. We encourage students to have those tough conversations with friends and family and seek help when they need it.
In addition to our acknowledgment of RU OK? Day, as a school for the first time we also chose to participate in the Blue Tree Project. The Blue Tree project was created to help spark difficult conversations and encourage people to speak up when battling mental health concerns. By spreading paint and spreading the message that ‘it’s OK to not be OK’, the hope is to break down the stigma that is still largely attached to mental health. Our Art department and a group of students from across various years groups dedicated time to painting a dead tree that we have placed on the School Oval.